More Books!

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

My SIGNED copy of the book. I didn't finish it until after he signed it but thats not the point. The book was funny and different but definitely written for young adults. It was a nice, relaxing and humorous read that did point out a lot of issues that teenagers deal with. It was good times.

The Anastasia Syndrome by Mary Higgins Clark

I have always loved Mary Higgins Clark and this was another good one. Its a novella so it only took about four hours to listen to and the ending was well worth it. I can't tell you what happened, you just have to read it (or listen to it).

True Believer by Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks never fails in making me cry (or at least tear). This was no exception.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

This was a very different kind of book that I did enjoy. I'm looking forward to reading the next one in the series.

I know that there isn't a lot of description but I don't have too much time. All were good books that I would recommend anyone who may be interested in them.

Go books!

The Sounds of Charles City

I put together a video of some of the music at different events I've been to here in Charles City, Virginia.

The first is a calliope at the County Fair and then Curry's elementary school singing Swing Low, then a blue grass band singing Swing Low as well. The last is the Grand Opening Dance of the Chickahominy Indian Pow Wow. All of it great.

Lock In

Here are some pictures from the Lock In.

The guys "playing" the piano. They "played" for a few hours...

Playing Human Chess. Caleb's team (on the right) were the winners!

Jill, who is also in my Religious Science Fiction class and is hating as much as I do right now...

Ashley

Stuff on Heads!


We had such a good time just playing games and being goofy. I made some new friends that I plan on staying friends with. Which is always good.

Balderdash!

I was able to attend the Lock In held by the CSF (Christian Student Fellowship) group at school and it was awesome! We played a very long and fun game of Balderdash that resulted in some serious cases of the giggles and the occasional side-splitting laughter. I was in tears at one point.

For those who don't know what the game is, the judge picks a card from the box and decides which word they want to use. They then tell the group what the word is and they write it down on their word card. Each person then attempts to write a convincing definition for the word and hands in the card to the judge. The judge also writes down the actual definition down and shuffles it into the other cards. The cards are then read by the judge out loud and the group votes on which definition they think is correct. Or, when you get to the end and are feeling pretty silly, the funniest one.

I keep the cards from one round that was particularly hilarious. Keep in mind that all of us are nerds and there were a few Philosophy majors...

The word was Pickelhaube.

Pickelhaube: A prime cut of manflesh favored by the French.

Pickelhaube: The poor unfortunate soul who has to clean up after a food fight.

Pickelhaube: Jibberish term used to ask a person, "Where is my cheese?" or "Do you know the way to my boat?" depending on the pronounciation.

Pickelhaube: Regardless of the meaning of the word, I perceive this answer to be correct. As perception is knowledge, David O'Neal is compelled to vote for this answer.

Pickelhaube: A helmet with a spike on the top of it.

Pickelhaube: The German word for the winner of the Pickle Eating Contest.

Pickelhaube: The kind of friend who drops french onion dip in your water cup.

Pickelhaube: A radical politician.

Pickelhaube: I'll pickle your hob.

Can you guess the real definition? Put it in the comments and I'll e-mail you whether or not you guessed correctly. And no cheating by looking it up!

Fuzzy Goodness

I read these off of my Get Fuzzy daily calendar and had to share them with you. I apologize for the fuzziness, I don't have a scanner here so I had to take a picture. Either way, they're hilarious.

Thursday October 4, 2007

Sunday October 7, 2007

by Darby Conley

News in Blogs

In Journalism today we watched a video of a PBS special about Journalism, its problems and what the internet and technology are doing to Journalism. I have to agree with the commentators about what Journalism has become in that it is more focused on entertaining than informing in many instances. Shows like Hardball, Dateline, Primetime Live, etc. are a bunch of people yelling over each other, trying to cause controversy and gain ratings. But that's a different discussion for another day.

The interesting part for me was when they got to the part about technology and the internet, particularly blogging. Both sides of the argument were presented: those who believe blogs can present news and those who write the blogs are journalists with or without training and those who think news centered blogs present unoriginal and unreliable news. Jeff Jarvis, the creator of BuzzMachine which is a blog about "media and news" (taken from his About Me/Disclosures page). Jarvis also states on this page that "This is a personal site". He goes on to mention how he is connected and therefore possibly bias to various organizations and companies, which I appreciate. In the video we watched in class today he claims that anyone can perform and "Act of Journalism" if they have a computer and a cell phone; if someone is witnessing an act they can take a picture or video of it, post it on the internet and make it news.

I have to disagree with Jarvis and partially agree with the Dean of the School of Journalism at Columbia University, whose name I cannot confirm. The Dean (as I will refer to him) stated that he could not find blog news that was original. I took this to mean that the news in blogs is simply repeating or commenting on news that has already been printed or aired by known news organizations like ABC News or the New York Times. I don't read many blogs, especially news blogs so I cannot comment on that but I can say that I agree because of my own blogging.

Obviously I have a blog and am therefore by definition a blogger. But I blog about my personal life for my family and friends now that I am not living at home and able to share all of that information nor experiences with them. I do not attempt to report news, I may comment every now and then on what is going on in the world but I hope and pray that no takes me thoughts and ideas as fact.

Information on the internet is mostly unreliable. There are many things that I use and trust are true based on where the information is coming from but I do not know for fact that the information is true. For example, when writing a paper for one of my classes I will occasionally use Wikipedia to find dates or names or links but we are not even allowed to use Wikipedia as a cited source. Because anyone can edit and add information to the site, it is unreliable. That is that. Those who edit Wikipedia do not have someone editing their information, there are no fact checkers to make sure what they are saying is what actually happened. The same can be said for blogs.

There may come a day when Journalists will use blogs to report the news (some news stations are starting to) but as of right now, independent bloggers are not Journalists and cannot be completely relied on to provide pertinent, bias free and reliable news.

That's my opinion and its only an opinion.

90%

Yeah! I just got my second Journalism test back today and I got a 90%! I know that's less than last time but there were only 10 questions on this test as opposed to the 20 on the first one so I only missed one. And I'm a little unsure about that one so I'm going to talk to the professor about why my answer was wrong, but anyway...

90%! I am definitely getting an "A" in that class which is good considering I'll most likely be a Journalism major.